Are human beings born good and corrupted by society or born bad and redeemed by civilization? Lately, goodness has been on a roll, scientifically speaking. It turns out that even 1-year-olds already sympathize with the distress of others and go out of their way to help them.

人类是本性善良，随后受社会影响而堕落;还是本性邪恶，之后又得到文明的救赎呢？近期的科学研究均显示，人的本性是善良的。事实上，1岁的幼童就已经能够同情别人的不幸，并尽力伸出援助之手了。

But the most recent work suggests that the origins of evil may be only a little later than the origins of good.

但最新的研究暗示，恶之源形成的时间可能只比善之源晚一点点。

Our impulse to love and help the members of our own group is matched by an impulse to hate and fear the members of other groups. In 'Gulliver's Travels,' Swift described a vicious conflict between the Big-Enders, who ate their eggs with the big end up, and the Little-Enders, who started from the little end. Historically, largely arbitrary group differences (Catholic vs. Protestant, Hutu vs. Tutsi) have led to persecution and even genocide.

我们既有热爱和帮助自己人的冲动，也有憎恨和恐惧其他群体成员的冲动。斯威夫特(Swift)在《格列佛游记》(Gulliver's Travels)中描写了“大端派”（吃鸡蛋时从大的一端开始吃）和“小端派”（从小的一端开始吃）之间的恶性冲突。历史上，随意性很大的群体差异（天主教和新教，胡图族和图西族）曾导致迫害乃至大屠杀。

When and why does this particular human evil arise? A raft of new studies shows that even 5-year-olds discriminate between what psychologists call in-groups and out-groups. Moreover, children actually seem to learn subtle aspects of discrimination in early childhood.

这种人性的邪恶是从何时开始产生的，其原因又是什么呢？许多新的研究显示，就连5岁的孩子也会区别对待心理学家所说的“内团体”和“外团体”。此外，儿童似乎是在幼年时就领会歧视的微妙层面的。

In a recent paper, Yarrow Dunham at Princeton and colleagues explored when children begin to have negative thoughts about other racial groups. White kids aged 3 to 12 and adults saw computer-generated, racially ambiguous faces. They had to say whether they thought the face was black or white. Half the faces looked angry, half happy. The adults were more likely to say that angry faces were black. Even people who would hotly deny any racial prejudice unconsciously associate other racial groups with anger.

普林斯顿大学(Princeton)的亚罗•邓纳姆(Yarrow Dunham)和同事在近期的一篇论文中考察了儿童对其他族群负面看法的形成时间。在实验中，3到12岁的白人儿童以及成年人看了一些电脑合成、种族不明的面孔。他们要判断这些面孔属于黑人还是白人。其中有半数的面孔是愤怒的表情，半数是高兴的表情。成年人更倾向于说愤怒的面孔属于黑人。就连强烈否认自己有种族偏见的人也会下意识地将其他族群的面孔与愤怒联系在一起。

But what about the innocent kids? Even 3- and 4-year-olds were more likely to say that angry faces were black. In fact, younger children were just as prejudiced as older children and adults.

那么，天真无邪的孩子是怎样认为的呢？就连三、四岁的孩子也倾向于说愤怒的面孔是黑人的。事实上，幼童与较为年长的孩子以及成年人一样抱有偏见。

Is this just something about white attitudes toward black people? They did the same experiment with white and Asian faces. Although Asians aren't stereotypically angry, children also associated Asian faces with anger. Then the researchers tested Asian children in Taiwan with exactly the same white and Asian faces. The Asian children were more likely to think that angry faces were white. They also associated the out-group with anger, but for them the out-group was white.

这是否仅仅是白人对黑人的偏见呢？研究者用白人和亚洲人的面孔做了同样的实验。尽管亚洲人给人的固有印象并不是愤怒，但孩子们还是将亚洲人的脸庞与愤怒联系在了一起。之后，研究人员又使用同样的白人和亚洲人面孔对台湾的亚洲儿童进行了实验。结果显示，亚洲儿童更倾向于认为愤怒的面孔属于白人。他们同样将外团体与愤怒联系在了一起，但对他们来说，外团体是白人。

Was this discrimination the result of some universal, innate tendency or were preschoolers subtly learning about discrimination? For black children, white people are the out-group. But, surprisingly, black children (and adults) were the only ones to show no bias at all; they categorized the white and black faces in the same way. The researchers suggest that this may be because black children pick up conflicting signals─they know that they belong to the black group, but they also know that the white group has higher status.

这种歧视是某种普遍、内在倾向的产物，还是说学龄前儿童会在潜移默化中学会歧视？对黑人儿童来说，白人属于外团体。但令人意外的是，黑人儿童（以及成年人）是唯一未显示出任何偏见的群体；他们用同样的方式对白人和黑人面孔进行归类。研究者暗示，这可能是因为黑人儿童接受了相互冲突的信号──他们知道自己属于黑人族群，但他们也知道白人族群的地位较高。

These findings show the deep roots of group conflict. But the last study also suggests that somehow children also quickly learn about how groups are related to each other.

这些发现揭示出种族冲突的深刻根源。但最后一项研究也暗示出，儿童还能够迅速了解族群与族群之间是如何相互联系的。

Learning also was important in another way. The researchers began by asking the children to categorize unambiguously white, black or Asian faces. Children began to differentiate the racial groups at around age 4, but many of the children still did not recognize the racial categories. Moreover, children made the white/Asian distinction at a later age than the black/white distinction. Only children who recognized the racial categories were biased, but they were as biased as the adults tested at the same time. Still, it took kids from all races a while to learn those categories.

此外，学习的重要性还体现在另一方面。研究人员首先让儿童对易于辨识的面孔（包括白人、黑人和亚洲人面孔）进行归类。儿童从4岁左右开始区分族群，但仍有许多儿童无法辨识种族类别。此外，儿童区分白人、亚洲人比区分出黑人和白人要晚。只有那些了解种族类别的儿童才有偏见，但他们与同时接受调查的成年人偏见程度相同。不过，所有种族的儿童都需要花一段时间来了解这些类别。

The studies of early altruism show that the natural state of man is not a war of all against all, as Thomas Hobbes said. But it may quickly become a war of us against them.

对早期利他行为的研究显示，人类的自然状态并不像托马斯•霍布斯(Thomas Hobbes)所说的那样是一切人反对一切人的战争。但这可能很快就会开始成为“我们”对“他们”的战争。